Edward S. Waters, 74; TV Writer and Producer Won an Emmy in 1976

Edward S. Waters, 74, a writer and producer for such television series as “Kung Fu” and “Police Story,” which earned him an Emmy in 1976, died Nov. 9 at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica of unspecified causes.

A native New Yorker, Waters graduated magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame and served in the Navy, rising to the rank of lieutenant. He moved to Los Angeles in 1954 and found work as a staff writer for CBS. Waters wrote the scripts for several films, including “Sorority Girl” in 1957 and “Man-Trap” directed by his uncle, Edmond O’Brien, in 1961.

But Waters spent the bulk of his four-decade career in television, writing scripts for more than 100 prime-time shows and earning several mentions in Tom Stempel’s book “Storytellers to the Nation: A History of American Television Writing.”

Writing or producing and often both, he worked on such series as “Kraft Suspense Theatre,” “The F.B.I.,” “Mannix,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Baretta,” “T.J. Hooker,” “The Equalizer” and “Jake and the Fatman.”